store2@ihuxi.UUCP (Wilcox) (01/12/87)
The following information is downloaded with permission from Compuserve.
I am only posting it to the 8bit group because it has already appeared
in the st section.
ANTIC PUBLISHING INC., COPYRIGHT 1987.
REPRINTED BY PERMISSION.
Atari at CES -- Winter 1987
A sneak preview of what's new.
(Las Vegas -- January 7) -- The motto of Tramiel's Atari Corporation has
just been updated. Instead of "Power Without The Price," Atari's battle cry is
"Where the Action Is."
The action started with three major hardware announcements from Atari.
First is Atari's introduction of the new "Mega" ST series.
Atari has altered their 16-bit product line in both features and styling.
The new STs are component systems, similar in appearance to an IBM PC, but less
"clunky" -- they bear a sleek micro-stereo component look. A detachable
keyboard connects via cable to a separate box housing the CPU, an included
double-density 3 1/2 inch drive and a battery-sustained real-time calendar
clock. Cosmetically, the Mega STs are the same dove-gray ST color, the
separated keyboard resembling a 1040 ST with the diagonal vent area sliced off.
The keyboard, by the way, has a much crisper feel to it than current ST
keyboards, although key layout and the keytops themselves remain unchanged.
The new STs are designed as "open architecture" machines. Expansion
devices such as add-on cards might be plugged into a peripheral box, which would
then connect to the ST through the DMA port or bus expansion connector. In the
future, such a box could feature dedicated chips, such as the new Motorola 68020
and the 68881 math coprocessor, giving blinding speed to graphics processing,
real-time animation and other memory intensive, number-crunching functions. The
Mega STs will be available in 1, 2 and 4 megabyte configurations, with prices
reportedly starting at around $995. And yes, the Mega STs come with the blitter
chip built in.
The second major announcement was the Atari ST Desktop Publishing System.
An Atari ST "host" computer will serve as the front end for a laser printer
"engine." As of this writing (Wednesday night, before CES officially opens) the
manufacturer of Atari's laser printer has not been identified. (Perhaps Atari
will name names at their press conference at 9:00 Thursday morning.) However,
John Skruch at Atari told Antic Publishing the manufacturer was "one of the
three biggest names in the laser printer business." The Atari laser printer
promises virtually typeset quality electophotographic print technology with a
300 dot-per-inch resolution.
Third, and probably most unusual of Atari's new hardware announcements, was
the Atari IBM PC compatible. That's right -- Atari has jumped into Compaq,
Leading Edge and Hyundai territory by announcing their own IBM PC "clone" -- to
retail for an amazing $495. The new Atari PC features an 8088 microprocessor
with a switchable clock speed of 4.77 MHz or 8MHz. The PC will come with 512K
standard, expandable to 640K of RAM, plus 256K of screen RAM. As Atari's press
information states, the PC "supports these graphics modes: enhanced color
adaptor (EGA), color graphics adaptor, monochrome display adaptor and Hercules
graphics cards." The resolution is 640 X 350, either monochrome or color. The
PC is equipped with standard ports: parallel printer ports, RS232C serial port,
plus built-in mouse support. Not surprisingly, it comes with a detachable
keyboard (IBM PC/XT layout), and will accept a 8087 numeric coprocessor. The
CPU box has a 360K 5 1/4-inch disk drive built in, and can accept two additional
external drives. The PC's styling is similar to Atari's new STs -- either one
would look sexy sitting on an executive (or home) desk. Atari hopes to use its
PC as a front-end vehicle for their laser printer, and claims the PC will run
"thousands of pieces of IBM software." And what was that graphics operating
system software package we saw next to the Atari PC Clone? We'll get to that
juicy gossip in our next report!
Those are the major Atari stories breaking before CES has actually started.
Stay tuned to ANTIC ONLINE for more in- depth reports on Atari at CES. Later
reports will focus on what's new in both 16- and 8-bit software and third-party
peripherals for your favorite computers.
Kit Kimes
AT&T--Information Systems Labs
1100 E. Warrenville Rd.
Naperville, IL 60566
...ihnp4!iwvae!kimes